Cholula is famous for its rich and fine ceramics since Pre-Columbian times; it was an important pottery center of renowned prestige during the Post-Classic period (900-1521 A.D.) and this tradition continued during Colonial Times and still persists today. One of its most ired productions is the Pre-Columbian polychrome pottery, for its smooth, lustrous and elegant appearance. The sophisticated ceramics we see here are the result of a very old local pottery tradition, knowledge of the properties of their materials and the incorporation of sophisticated foreign techniques, originating in the Maya area, specifically in an area with close trade links with the Gulf, like the coast of Tabasco and Campeche.
Archaeologists who have studied the development of ceramics in this great metropolis of Cholula have identified that the appearance of polychrome ceramics marks a new stage in the history of this city. Ever since the Classic period (200-650 A.D.), Cholula was a very important strategic point along the trade routes that Teotihuacan enjoyed to the Gulf and southern Mexico. Since then Cholula already had a fine burnished tableware of excellent fabrication, but lacked painting. Its appearance is linked to the arrival of new groups, apparently Olmec-Xicalancas, as well as to the adoption of aesthetic ideas originating in the Maya area.
These fine vessels were luxury products for the exclusive use of the political and religious elites of the Post-Classic period. They were used in ceremonies of high importance in the network of political alliances that were made between the Nahua and Mixtec noble lineages through marriage.
Vessels like the one shown in the picture are the earliest records that we have of the codices and the oldest example of a stylistic tradition known as Mixteca-Puebla. Due to their durability, these vessels are a source of information of the first order regarding the formation of an individual pictorial style that changed according to historical circumstances, which is reflected in these pictorial works.
It was not until the end of the ninth century of our era that polychrome ceramics appeared, whose greatest virtue was the durability of the painting and decoration on its exterior walls. Potters of Cholula somehow learned the Mayan ceramic technique that consisted of painting the vessels before firing them.
In fact, in addition to the firing technique, another innovation was the application of a white/cream engobe that would improve the rough surface of the clay. This engobe has components similar to porcelain, like kaolin. The technique consists of dipping the pieces in this engobe before subjecting them to an initial firing; once fired they are burnished and the painters could then draw and trace the shapes and figures, allowing the brush or the painting instrument to glide with ease. Its walls would then be hand-painted by a master, perhaps with the help of a previous sketch to calculate the space.
Despite the round and curved forms of this vessel, the balanced composition is irable, arranging the figures in a symmetrical and orderly manner. Preference is given to symbols that are frequently used since the early Post-Classic period (900-1200 A.D.). Four bands or horizontal s are placed around the neck, the widened and semiglobular body, to the base of the vessel. The neck is decorated with geometric compositions based on serrated rhombi flanked by bands, which create a comparsa with the diagonal lines that are drawn parallel to the rhombi, forming exes that alternate between cream colored and brown.
The body has symmetrically attached handles with a hole that divides the pictorial space into six rectangular quadrants on which are represented figures that occupy all available space. The heads of zoomorphs and/or mythological beings with complex headdresses of feathers are represented in these quadrangles. Simplified feather series are placed at the base, alternating with various combinations of shades that go from white to beige and dark brown. Earth tones derived from some ferrous mineral that withstands high temperatures predominate.
These types of vessels and the motifs represented on them are very common in the period that the archaeologists state for Cholula, the Middle Post-Classic (1150-1350 A.D.), precisely when the arrival of the Toltecs to Cholula was documented.
Cholula is famous for its rich and fine ceramics since Pre-Columbian times; it was an important pottery center of renowned prestige during the Post-Classic period (900-1521 A.D.) and this tradition continued during Colonial Times and still persists today. One of its most ired productions is the Pre-Columbian polychrome pottery, for its smooth, lustrous and elegant appearance. The sophisticated ceramics we see here are the result of a very old local pottery tradition, knowledge of the properties of their materials and the incorporation of sophisticated foreign techniques, originating in the Maya area, specifically in an area with close trade links with the Gulf, like the coast of Tabasco and Campeche.
